Manchester
is one of our favourite cities, although I can't say that we have visited
as much as we might have liked.

Distance
is probably the main reason for that as it is over 200 miles from Norfolk
and takes a good six hours allowing for traffic problems on both the A1
and M66.

Nevertheless
we travelled to Lancashire over the weekend from Friday 20th to Sunday
22nd August, mainly to see Norwich play at Old Trafford - our first visit
to a ground tagged "The Theatre of Dreams."

We
set off at just after 1 p.m for our destination which was the
Village Hotel and Leisure Club at Bury - a distance of 213.7 miles which
was helped by listening to Test Match Special on the radio.

This
glorious English institution of "good old boys" talking about
cricket still remains a delight and is quintessentially British. It
certainly helps with traffic jams on motorways and a journey that took us
five hours.

Still
it was worth it and our room turned out to be spacious and comfortable and
a meal in the hotel's pub was good value for money (two steak meals and a
bottle of decent red wine for £20.

Saturday
21st saw us take a very quick breakfast in order to see the Olympic rowing
finals and I think we all cried along with Matthew Pinsent when he won
that gold. The breakfast was solid English fair only spoiled by the
rudeness of one of the guests who complained heartily when he had to wait
two minutes to be seated.

We
always complain when staff are rude and surly but it seems to be the
accepted norm for customers to be.

We
decided to walk into Bury which took about half-an-hour and we had a look
around the famous market and I weakened to buy a double Todd Rundgren
album which cost just £5.99.

The
link into Manchester via the Metro was simple and effective, despite the
fact that we got off at the wrong stop and had to wait for the next train.
The Metro system, which runs through the centre of Manchester and then out
as far as Bury in one direction and Altrincham in the other, is clean and
speedy.

Two views of the Salford Quays area of
Manchester with the Lowry Centre on the right.

Our
stopping point was the regenerated and rejuvenated Salford Quays area with
its excellent arts centre and Lowry Gallery. I have never been a great fan
of the matchstick men and dogs paintings of J.S. Lowry but it was
interesting to see them up close and learn something of the complex life
of this son of Lancashire.

We
also went to the Imperial War Museum of the North which is in the same
area. Sadly we found this a little piecemeal and the lay-out rather
confusing and nowhere near as powerful as its sister museum in London.

Refreshments
were in order before moving on to Old Trafford - which was a short walk
along the riverside from Salford Quays.

Photographs
were taken outside to go with those taken in Barcelona and Madrid (great
football grounds of the world series) and then we entered the ground to
enjoy the atmosphere!!!

Now
the exclamation marks are due to the decided lack of atmosphere in the
ground. Yes it's big, yes it's plush but where was the noise. About 2,000
Norwich fans out sang over 60,000 Reds' fans - and if you don't believe
that the evidence could be heard on television later in the evening.

"Shall
we sing a song for you" and "You're only here for the
champions" were the taunts of the Norwich fans. I think I was
occasionally aware of Manchester fans moving slightly, but they may have
just been turning in their sleep!!!

And
the reason for this lack of support was later blamed on Sky Television
covering the match and making the kick off at 5.15 p.m. We must assume
from this that Reds' fans make a lot of noise when the kick off is 3 p.m.

Anyway
we expected to lose and were just there to enjoy the day. But we only went
down 2-1 and I felt cheated that the Canaries had not achieved the point
they deserved against a very disappointing Manchester side.

On the left is another view of the Salford Quays
area and on

the right is Peter pictured outside the "Theatre of
Silence" which is Old Trafford. On the left Anne is pictured
in the Norwich City pen ready to out sing the Manchester
thousands!

At
the end of the game we enjoyed a pizza and then got the Metro back to Bury
and a bus back to our hotel at the end of a very enjoyable day.

After
breakfast on the Sunday we travelled to the Saddleworth area of Lancashire
- an area I had wanted to see for many years - not because of the
notorious moors' murders but because of the connections the area has with
the songs of Barclay James Harvest.

I
was particularly interested in seeing Denshaw (Balled of Denshaw Mill) and
Delph (Delph Town Morn) and neither disappointed. Denshaw was little more
than a small village, but very picturesque and Delph turned out to be a
stone-clad town of great charm (and apparently in Yorkshire according to a
cafe owner who told us over coffee that BJH's guitarist John Lees often
pops in for a drink).

On the left Peter walks the countryside just
outside Denshaw and on the right is Delph

So
we wandered around and enjoyed the sunshine (I thought it rained every day
of the year in this area). We also visited Uppermill which is the largest
town in the area and by far the most populated on this day. We would have
liked to have stayed to enjoy a longboat trip along the canal, but only
had time for a cream tea in aid of charity before setting off for the long
journey home.

On the left is the Black Horse Pub at Denshaw
and on the right the Rural Museum in Uppermill.